


And Then He Smiled

by byrd_the_amazin



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: (It's What She Deserves), Anastasia AU, First Kiss, M/M, aka In A Crowd Of Thousands but it's javid, idk - Freeform, lost prince davey, reigning queen of russia sarah jacobs, songfic but the author sucks at songfics so it's just Weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 11:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14042841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/byrd_the_amazin/pseuds/byrd_the_amazin
Summary: in a crowd of thousands, but it's javid





	And Then He Smiled

**Author's Note:**

  * For [buckydarling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckydarling/gifts).



> words are dumb fics are dumb feelings are dumbity dumb dumb
> 
> hey wife! hey isa! i love you! sorry this is so shitty and also late!
> 
> i am not a master song-fic-writer so this is. mediocre at best
> 
> also. deviates from canon a tiny little bit. 
> 
> you'll see what i mean
> 
> g O d it's like midnight thirty and i am a mess
> 
> here goes nothing, babes 
> 
> -byrd

It had been a simple enough question. _Do you think I’m him?_

Did Jack think Davey was the lost prince David?

“I… _want_ to believe you’re him,” Jack said haltingly, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. “I want to believe you’re that boy I saw so long ago.”

“What?” Davey asked, scooting closer. An open invitation, if Jack had ever seen one.

“It was June,” Jack began, closing his eyes as the memory washed over him. “I was ten. I still think of that day now and then.” He inched an eye open to peek at Davey, who was watching him, enraptured. “A parade… and a boy, in a crowd of thousands.”

“A boy?” Davey prompted, smiling slightly.

“He sat straight,” Jack remembered. “Straight as a king. He was only eight, but already so proud and serene.” He closed his eyes all the way again. “How they cheered. How I _stared,_ in that crowd of thousands.”

He paused for a second and thought about why he’d even come into Davey’s room at all. Thought about how he’d heard Davey screaming in his sleep, and had rushed in to make sure everything was alright. This entire trip, Davey had tried to hide it, but Jack could tell he was being haunted by something much deeper and darker than he ever let on.

“What happened next?” Davey asked, eyes wide.

“Next?” Jack thought about it. “Then… I started to run, and call out his name, as the crowd on the road went wild…”

He’d known, even at ten, that the crowd cheering meant that the royal family was moving on, and he’d wanted one last glimpse of Prince David before he slipped away.

“And I reached out with my hand,” Jack said, pantomiming the action as he narrated, “and looked up, and then…”

“And then?” Davey repeated.

“And then… he _smiled_ ,” Jack whispered.

“ _Oh,_ ” said Davey in a hushed voice. When Jack looked over, he had his eyes closed, as though he was trying to imagine it, too.

“The parade travelled on,” Jack continued. “With the sun in my eyes, he was… gone. But if I were still ten…” He trailed off, then nodded. “If I were still ten, even in that crowd of thousands, I would find him again.”

“You’re making me feel I was there too,” Davey said quietly, opening his eyes.

Jack laughed, deciding to play along. After all, weren’t they supposed to be pretending Davey _was_ the lost prince? “Maybe you were. Make it part of your story.”

Davey gave him an unsure look, and then shrugged, like, _what the hell._ “A parade… passing by.”

Jack nodded in encouragement. “Go on.”

“It was hot,” Davey fabricated. “Not a cloud in the sky. Then a boy caught my eye…”

And _oh,_ he was good at this, Jack thought.

“In a crowd of thousands,” Davey said, echoing Jack’s words from earlier.

“Tell me about the boy,” Jack pressed.

Davey managed a smile. “You mean _you?_ Let’s see… he was thin. Not too clean.”

“Excuse me?” Jack demanded, but he couldn’t argue; he _had_ been a rather scrawny, dirty child.

“There were guards, but he dodged in between,” Davey added, and Jack had to hand it to him, he was pretty damn good at this storytelling business. “Yes, he made himself seen in that crowd.” He met Jack’s eye. “That _crowd of thousands._ ”

Jack opened his mouth to make a remark, to comment further, or prompt Davey for more information about this made-up tale, when all of a sudden, a strange look came over Davey’s face, like he was trying to find reason in something.

“Then he started to run,” Davey went on, and he sounded… _different._ Before, it was clear he’d been acting, playing the part of Prince David for this little charade they were putting on, but now…

Now, it sounded like he meant it.

“He ran through the sun,” Davey said, and his voice was getting stronger. “Through the heat and the crowd, and I saw him, and-” He cut off abruptly, still staring straight ahead at nothing. “I shouldn’t have smiled. I tried not to smile.” His mouth twitched up, betraying himself. “But I smiled, and then…”

Jack’s heart started beating faster, because something was… _off_ about this whole thing. All this time, they had been grooming Davey to become the lost prince, hoping he would be enough to convince the reigning queen Sarah that her brother was alive. But this…

Jack hadn’t counted on this.

“And then he _bowed,_ ” Davey said, in a hushed voice, and Jack bolted to his feet, immediately suspecting a trick.

“Did Spot-” he began, and then stopped, because he’d never told _anyone_ about bowing at the Prince that day, not even his brother Spot. “Davey, _I didn’t tell you that._ ”

“You didn’t have to,” Davey whispered, rising to his feet as well, meeting Jack’s gaze, and there was something there that hadn’t been there before, burning quiet and defiant just behind his eyes. “You didn’t have to tell me anything. I _remembered._ ”

“Shit,” Jack murmured, the implications of what Davey had just said setting in. “ _Shit,_ Davey.”

“The parade travelled on,” Davey murmured, taking a step closer to Jack. “With the sun in my eyes… you were gone.”

“But I knew, even then,” Jack said breathlessly, looking in Davey’s glittering eyes and feeling tears start to prick at his own. “In that crowd of thousands…”

“I’d find you again,” Davey finished. “I _knew_ it.”

As they had been talking, they had been getting closer and closer, and now they were face to face, inches apart. Jack could see Davey’s eyes, shining with tears in the pale glow from the lamp on the bedside table, darting from Jack’s mouth back up to his eyes, and Jack… kind of wanted to kiss him.

He was close enough, he thought, even as his hands came up to cup Davey’s face, brought their faces closer together.

He wanted—

With a jolt, he remembered who he was. Who _Davey_ was, and he jerked his face away from Davey’s with a start. The lost prince and son of the assassinated Russian tsar was standing in front of him, thought dead by most of the known world and the only living relative of former princess Sarah, and all he could think about were his _feelings._

 _Remember your place,_ he reprimanded himself. He was a peasant, in the presence of a prince, and he dropped his hands from Davey’s face. Slowly, for the second time in his life, he fell to one knee and lowered his head in the ultimate symbol of respect- _he bowed,_ just as he’d done all those years ago on the street during the parade.

“Your Highness,” he whispered, and Davey shifted on his feet.

“Jack,” he murmured under his breath. “Stand up.”

“Your Highness-”

“ _Davey,_ ” he corrected. “Stand up. _Please._ ”

Reluctantly, Jack looked up. Davey’s face was pale, but set in a determined expression. Jack stood slowly, bringing himself face-to-face with Davey once more. They were so close. _So close._

“Jack,” Davey whispered. “It’s still me.”

“You’re _him._ ”

“I’m _me,_ ” Davey said firmly, and before Jack could say anything else, he stepped forward and gently pressed their lips together.

All thought in Jack’s brain halted, and he brought his hands back up to cradle Davey’s jaw, because Davey was _kissing_ him.

The _prince_ was _kissing him._

No, not the prince.

_Davey._

The boy who’d stumbled into the theater where Spot and Jack had held their auditions on accident. The boy who they were dragging to Paris, teaching him how to become the lost prince David on the way. The boy who Jack had fallen for, _hard,_ as they spent more and more time together.

The boy who maybe, just maybe, didn’t need to be _taught_ anything, because he was also the boy who had survived the massacre of his entire family.

The lost prince.

David.

_Davey._

Jack broke the kiss, laughing breathlessly. “It’s you,” he said. “I told you I’d find you again.”

“It’s me,” Davey agreed, and closed his eyes. “I can’t wait to see my sister.”

“ _God,_ Dave,” Jack said reverently, looking at Davey in amazement. “We did it. We _found_ you.”

He leaned in and kissed Davey again, long and slow, leaving them both breathless when they parted.

“We should-” Davey accepted one more quick kiss from Jack before resting a hand on his chest and pushing him gently backwards. “We should get some sleep. Long day tomorrow.”

“You’re right,” Jack muttered, “and I hate it.” He leaned in for another kiss, but Davey turned away. “Tomorrow, Jack.”

“ _Davey,_ ” Jack whined.

Davey looked like he was trying hard not to smile. “Goodnight, Jack.”

“Goodnight, Davey.” Jack paused in the doorway. “See you in the morning.”

“See you tomorrow,” Davey answered.

~

Davey was well aware that his grin was stretched from ear to ear, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He was _elated._ He was floating on a cloud.

He was the lost prince David, and he’d just kissed Jack. _More than once._

That night, his dreams were full of golden light rather than ghostly figures, of a girl reaching out for him and smiling instead of crying, of warm hands caressing his face and warm lips covering his own.

And for the first time in as long as he could remember, Davey slept through the night without waking again.

~

**Author's Note:**

> sorry the ending was kind of ? rushed and weird and Bad
> 
> hmmmmmm it's time for bed 
> 
> (it's time to sit on the bed and stare at the wall for several business weeks)
> 
> love y'all 
> 
> you especially, wife


End file.
